I've had the same experience. Both as a tourist and a native.
People are beyond friendly to tourists. In my younger days some Japanese tourists were so happy to meet me we took pictures.
As long as you respect no one owes you anything life is great. That said, I vastly prefer real life socialization over any app. The website being shown here is a bit counter productive. Your in a foreign country, just experience it. Don't stair at your phone all day.
> In my younger days some Japanese tourists were so happy to meet me we took pictures.
I am guessing you are white? I experienced something similar when we went to china, all the locals were mobbing white people in our group to take pictures with them. I am not white and no one bothered me :). Pictures with whites is a trophy for chinese locals?
We had some sort of "lunch with locals" where 'locals' were toasting to 'the beauty' of white women in our group. All non whites were completely ignored by the locals. I've never experienced such overt racism/sexism anywhere else, Really bizarre experience. screw the locals.
You’re being downvoted but people who are at least a little familiar with Asia they’ll know how racist it is against people of color. Racisms in Asia is not only widespread but also out in the open, sometimes even against white people; Google “dame gaijin”
I’m in Indonesia and literally 2 weeks ago someone told me Papuan women are ugly because “they’re dark like Africans.” The Jakarta man telling me this wasn’t even light skinned.
This doesn't align with what my friends have experienced. Regardless of skin tone they've been treated much better in Asia than in America.
China , even to my friends of color has been amazingly great. They tell me you will get stared at, but it's nothing compared to the open hostility faced in America on a day-to-day basis.
Certainly in Asia people may be more polite about it… or you just might not understand when they use derogatory terms in their own language.
I’m white and I still hear people occasionally insulting me in their own language, thinking I don’t understand the words they use. It upsets me and it upsets my local girlfriend too. People are a*es and racist everywhere.
That said my experience with people in Asia has been overwhelmingly positive and that’s why I live here, even with the occasional rude comment and person taking a video of me while saying “botak”
>This doesn't align with what my friends have experienced.
ok ? But you are white. yea?
What you described in your original comment is a white person experience. No asian is rushing to get their picture taken with an Indian, lol.
I later learned that having your picture taken or having a white 'friend' is some sort of status symbol.
> The phenomenon is based on the perception that association with foreigners, specifically white foreigners, can signify prestige, legitimacy, and international status.
> Regardless of skin tone they've been treated much better in Asia than in America.
This might be true but i was talking about overt racism. I've never experienced this total shameless overt racism outside china. It didn't even occur to 'locals' that totasting to white women's beauty had anything wrong with it, it just made sense to them that white = pretty.
This is a weird comment but I can't quite put a pin on why.
> ok ? But you are white. yea?
> What you described in your original comment is a white person experience. No asian is rushing to get their picture taken with an Indian, lol. I later learned that having your picture taken or having a white 'friend' is some sort of status symbol.
> > The phenomenon is based on the perception that association with foreigners, specifically white foreigners, can signify prestige, legitimacy, and international status.
> > Regardless of skin tone they've been treated much better in Asia than in America.
The second quote is not in the article. But this is:
> White monkey is a term used to refer to the phenomenon of white foreigners or immigrants in China ...
Emphasis mine. Setting aside the irony of complaining about racism and then failing to distinguish between Chinese and Japanese, I don't know why you felt the need to diminish the parent's experience in Japan.
Ok, people prefer white skin in China. They also prefer it in India. It's pretty common in countries with a colonial "heritage", though I agree it's gross.
The second part:
> > Regardless of skin tone they've been treated much better in Asia than in America.
> This might be true but i was talking about overt racism. I've never experienced this total shameless overt racism outside china. It didn't even occur to 'locals' that totasting to white women's beauty had anything wrong with it, it just made sense to them that white = pretty.
Emphasis mine.
But then the parent comment stated:
> This doesn't align with what my friends have experienced. Regardless of skin tone they've been treated much better in Asia than in America.
> China , even to my friends of color has been amazingly great. They tell me you will get stared at, but it's nothing compared to the open hostility faced in America on a day-to-day basis.
Emphasis mine. So the parent was talking about overt racism too. They're both valid, I suppose.
I guess the reason why this comment feels weird is because it really feels like there is an undercurrent of genuine hatred for the Chinese, which you are trying to justify with an experience of colorism, despite the fact that India (which I'm assuming you're from? Since you mentioned "Indian") also has problems with preferring white skin. I guess you can hate both Indians and Chinese for colorism, but it feels like you are just using colorism as an excuse to hate the Chinese.
Sorry for being so accusatory. This comment just had a weird feeling I wanted to address.
People are beyond friendly to tourists. In my younger days some Japanese tourists were so happy to meet me we took pictures.
As long as you respect no one owes you anything life is great. That said, I vastly prefer real life socialization over any app. The website being shown here is a bit counter productive. Your in a foreign country, just experience it. Don't stair at your phone all day.